Elon Musk Puts Streaming Services On Blast for “Crazy Low Payout”

Elon Musk is putting streaming services including Spotify on blast for their “crazy low payout” to labels and artists. Such rates haven’t exactly been a kept secret, but it seems now he has some direct stake in the matter considering he’s dating a musician, Grimes.

The conversation popped up when someone asked about his favorite Grimes song, which by the way he has two: “Flesh without Blood” and “Kill V Maim.” Then, a considerate fan chimed in asking, “Would it benefit Grimes more if we were to buy her song/albums on iTunes? Rather than, sharing on Spotify or YouTube?”

Musk replied with an infographic, which shows Spotify, Pandora and YouTube as the bottom three streaming platforms in terms of gross payout per stream. Just a fraction of a penny goes back to the label and the artists before its divvied up even further.

XBOX, Rhapsody and Tidal are among the top when it comes to payouts, while Apple Music, Amazon, Deezer and Google fall into the middle.

“This chart shows how crazy low payout is to labels & the artists only a small fraction of these numbers,” Elon Musk wrote.